Efficient and Scalable Production of 2D Material Dispersions using Hexahydroxytriphenylene as a Versatile Exfoliant and Dispersant

Thin-layer 2D materials have been attracting enormous interest, and various processes have been investigated to obtain these materials efficiently. In view of their practical applications, the most desirable source for the preparation of these thin-layer materials is the pristine bulk materials with stacked layers, such as pristine graphite. There are many options in terms of conditions for the exfoliation of thin-layer materials, and these include wet and dry processes, with or without additives, and the kind of solvent. In this context, we found that the versatile exfoliant hexahydroxytriphenylene works efficiently for the exfoliation of typical 2D materials such as graphene, MoS2, and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) by both wet and dry processes by using sonication and ball milling, respectively, in aqueous and organic solvents. As for graphene, stable dispersions with relatively high concentrations (up to 0.28 mg mL−1) in water and tetrahydrofuran were obtained from graphite in the presence of hexahydroxytriphenylene by a wet process with the use of bath sonication and by a dry process involving ball milling. Especially, most of the graphite was exfoliated and dispersed as thin-layer graphene in both aqueous and organic solvents through ball milling, even on a large scale (47–86 % yield). In addition, the exfoliant was easily removed from the precipitated composite by heat treatment without disturbing the graphene structure. Bulk MoS2 and h-BN were also exfoliated by both wet and dry processes. Similar to graphene, dispersions of MoS2 and h-BN of high concentrations in water and DMF were produced in high yields through ball milling.